On December 11, the Indiana Department of Environmental Management (IDEM) presented its proposal to the public to begin remediating a significant portion of the West Branch of the Grand Calumet River. 

Last January IDEM submitted a request to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) Great Lakes National Program Office (GLNPO) for Great Lakes Legacy Act matching funds to remediate the Grand Calumet River from Columbia Avenue to Holman Avenue in Hammond Indiana. 

As the local sponsor for this project, IDEM has also partnered with the City of Hammond to carry out this project. The funding that IDEM will be using for the local sponsor's matching fund, approximately $5 million comes from settlement funds that the Service, IDEM, and the Indiana Department of Natural Resources secured several years ago as part of the Grand Calumet River / Indiana Harbor Canal natural resource damage assessment that we conducted. 

For the past seven years, FWS, IDEM and IDNR have been working on characterizing the contamination and developing / evaluating remedial alternatives that might be used in the West Branch. 

FWS has played a major role in the contracting and managing of the sediment characterization and engineering studies that developed the data to get us to this point.  Although the FWS cannot be considered a local sponsor for this project, we continue to provide our Indiana co-trustees with technical support and contract management assistance. 

This remediation restoration effort will benefit a residential neighborhood, two city parks, a school and Hammond's trail system.  It will also assist the City of Hammond in expediting their removal of two major combined sewer overflows from the Grand Calumet River, a tremendous benefit to human health and natural resources.